Christie Talks ‘New Normal’ as Power Comes Back in N.J

Sandy Hayes hugs her boyfriend Tom Musumeci as they look at the debris-filled waterfront from their porch in Union Beach, New Jersey. Photograph: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg

Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) -- The number of New Jersey residents
without power from superstorm Sandy fell below 1 million
yesterday, Governor Chris Christie said. Yet a fresh storm may
be just a few days away, bringing high winds and flooding rain.

“For those of you out there who don’t have power and are
at a neighbor’s house or at a friend’s house or the Elks Club, I
know when I tell you we’re under 1 million people from 2.7
million, it’s not going to mean a damned thing to you unless
your power’s on -- I get it,” Christie said at a news briefing
yesterday. Sandy blacked out more than half the state Oct. 29.

Christie said he will “continue to use my type of gentle
persuasion” to prod utilities to restore power as soon as
possible, at the briefing in Hoboken. He said it may take to the
end of the week to get everyone back online. A nor’easter may
barrel into the state Nov. 8, packing gusts as high as 50 miles
(80 kilometers) per hour and heavy rain, delaying the work,
according to the National Weather Service.

The 50-year-old Republican governor said about 4,000
residents were still in shelters and announced the opening of a
new facility to accommodate more. On Nov. 2, he imposed gasoline
rationing in 12 counties hardest hit by the storm. Sandy killed
more than 100 people in 10 U.S. states; 24 were in New Jersey.

‘New Normal’

“We’re returning now to a new normal, where power is
coming back on, where people are able to fuel up again in their
cars and where kids are getting back to school,” Christie said.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said
yesterday that there were 4,000 Federal Emergency Management
Agency personnel in New Jersey and more were on the way. She
said housing is the main challenge and FEMA workers are trying
to get people out of shelters and into longer-term alternatives.

Napolitano met yesterday with Christie and other state and
local officials. She went to a school in Hazlet, where water and
ice were being given out to those without power. The community
is about 15 miles (24 kilometers) east of East Brunswick and
south of Staten Island, the hard-hit New York City borough.

The region’s recovery is uneven. Across some parts of New
Jersey and New York that were swept by Sandy, power was restored
and cleanup was under way. Yet frustration persisted in
devastated outlying areas and gasoline remained in short supply
as temperatures in the region dropped to near freezing.
Residents began to plot their commutes to work tomorrow with
transit services truncated or suspended.

Powered Up

“I have power and cable back, so I’m happy,” said Marisa
Peacock, 50, of Jersey City.

Peacock, a project manager at the American National
Standards Institute in New York, expected getting to work today
would take twice as long as normal. Instead of riding a commuter
train, she said she’d board a bus, which she described as
“unreliable.”

NJ Transit, the region’s commuter-rail operator, advised
customers that normal service would be cut in half during
today’s rush-hour periods, with buses replacing some trains.

The death toll from Sandy was at least 111 nationwide,
according to the Associated Press. There were 5,243 people and
107 pets in New Jersey shelters as a result of the storm, said
Mary Goepfert, a state Emergency Management Office spokeswoman.

Delivering Meals

The U.S. Defense Department began delivering millions of
ready-to-eat meals to affected areas, including about 500,000
that were scheduled to arrive yesterday in Lakehurst, New
Jersey, according to a statement from the Pentagon.

A new East Coast storm will probably bring colder weather
and rain later this week, hitting areas that are still
recovering from Sandy, the weather service said on its website.
It could cause beach erosion and flooding in some areas of the
mid-Atlantic region and New England through early Nov. 9.

All but 65 of about 1,750 New York City public schools will
reopen today, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. He is the founder
and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP.

As mayor of the nation’s most-populous city, Bloomberg,
like Christie, cited a desire to restore life’s routines.

“We’re working to help more people get their lives back to
normal, and opening schools will be an important part of that,”
Bloomberg said.

Navy Ships

The U.S. Navy has sent three ships and about 2,000 sailors
to the New York metropolitan area to assist recovery efforts,
according to Courtney Hillson, a spokeswoman for the service.

The Navy is helping to repair the storm-damaged Hoboken
Ferry Terminal and a Coast Guard station at Sandy Hook, New
Jersey, Hillson said. Twenty-two Navy and Marine Corps
helicopters are also being used in the effort, she said.

In Jersey City, across the Hudson River from Manhattan,
Nabir Degnich, 34, said he is relieved that power was restored
to his home, where he lives with his pregnant wife. He works at
an Exxon gas station that has been without power for about six
days and unable to pump fuel.

“Day after day, you feel it is getting better,” Degnich
said.

Outside a pizza shop near Main Street in Fort Lee, New
Jersey, Helen Thompson, 73, said she hasn’t had power since the
day Sandy struck. To cope with the cold, the of Edgewater
resident said she puts on more clothes and sleeps more,
“because my bed’s so nice and warm.”

Casino Capital

In Atlantic City, home to a dozen casinos on an Atlantic
Ocean barrier island, piles of flood-damaged furniture dotted
some streets yesterday. A few residents moved belongings from
sodden basements in blustery winds.

Chest-high water flooded city resident Dianne McDevitt’s
basement, destroying her furnace and leaving an odor resembling
paint fumes in upper levels of her three-story home.

A 50-year-old nurse, McDevitt said she doesn’t have the
money to have someone clean the mess in her basement and is
worried about mold. She piled belongings on the curb, along with
boardwalk wood that floated from a block away.

“I am just overwhelmed by it,” McDevitt said. “I just
don’t know what to do.”

Farther north, in Point Pleasant Beach, the sidewalk of
Arnold Avenue included what used to be the contents of the first
floor of Danielle Massood’s home: two mattresses, toys, antique
cabinets and a refrigerator.

Lucky House

“We’re still pulling stuff out,” she said, after taking
off a white mask over her mouth while on her porch.

A pile of wet clothes lay by her feet. She said the kitchen
has to be ripped out and the first floor has to be renovated.

Even with the loss of irreplaceable items such as her
wedding video, Massood said she considers herself lucky.

“We’re fortunate, because our house is still standing,”
said Massood, who teaches at Rutgers University. “A lot of
people have nothing.”

Across the street at the Pelican Point Motel, stacks of
wood and wet carpet were piled in front. Inside, men were
swinging hammers at the walls of the first floor rooms, which
were falling with loud crashes.

Owner A.J. Befumo, 35, said they were removing the carpets
and walls before mold grows.

“We’re just trying to manage,” he said.

“It’s very tough to tell,” Befumo said when asked if he
plans to reopen next summer. “It’s definitely not a certainty
at this point.”